Between the lines hockey and baseball

Menu

So Many Suspensions

Brendan Shanahan is the NHL’s chief player disciplinarian which means he decides the suspensions, fines and bans. There have been thirteen different suspensions and two fines. Nine of the thirteen suspensions came in the pre-season. The suspensions have included James Wisniewski’s check to the head of Cal Clutterbuck that cost James 12 games, Jody Shelly’s boarding on Darryl Boyce that cost Jody 10 games and Clarke MacArthur’s hit to the head of Justin Abdelkader. MacArthur was suspended for 3 games. The two fines that took place were both amounts of $2500. They were handed out to Mats Zuccarello and Shea Weber. It is very rare to get suspended for a hit that was an accident. When a hockey player hits someone bad enough to get suspended, there is a good chance that it was on purpose. They can deny it as much as they want, and only they know the truth. Brendan Shanahan has been pretty busy in the 11/12 season and in my eyes he has done a good job when it comes to length of the punishments. Players know right after they commit the crime that they will probably be facing a suspension. Chances are that they are thinking of that in the penalty box too. If they’re making these kind of hits (In the links below) they also know what Shanahan has in hand for them.